, "In many instances [women] are the first to be affected by unemployment, inflation and shortages. And it is women who face the task of holding the family together when the men lose their jobs and can no longer contribute" (Randall, 1995, pp. 10-13). Women were forced into whatever employment they could find, from selling fruit to working as domestics. Because employment conditions favored men, women were relegated to the lowest paying jobs. Revolutions are fed by the dissatisfaction of the masses, and women in Nicaragua were chief among the economic victims who opposed the Somozas.
When women joined the fight to overthrow Somoza they were convinced that a victory for the revolution would also mean an end to their status as second-class citizens. About one-third of Sandinista soldiers were women, including military commanders like Dora Maria Tellez and Monica Baltodano. The people who opposed Somoza came from many groups, but together made up an organization called the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN), consisting of middle-class citizens; several radical Communist groups; and a military group called the Insurrectionists. The United States became alarmed by what it considered a red scare:
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